Decision Day Arrives In Wisconsin

Getting out the vote: In Janesville, Wis., on Monday, Democrat Wanda Sonnentag was calling voters.

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Polls open at 7 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) in Wisconsin, where the bitter battle over whether to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker is finally coming to a conclusion.

Walker faces Milwaukee's Democratic mayor, Tom Barrett, in recall election. As our colleague Liz Halloran reports over on It's All Politics and NPR's Don Gonyea said on Morning Edition, pre-vote polls have varied — with Walker holding a lead that varies from narrow to double-digits.

Wisconsin's results will be dissected, of course, for clues to what they do or don't say about what voters there will or won't do this November. President Obama won the state in 2008. But Walker defeated Barrett there in 2010.

NPR's Political Junkie, Ken Rudin, notes that there's lots of voting going on today — with primaries in five states. Ken also points out that only two U.S. governors have ever been recalled: "The first was Lynn Frazier of North Dakota, who was in his third two-year term when he was recalled in October 1921. ... The second was Gray Davis of California, who was recalled in October 2003."